Liberty in North Korea

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Liberty in North Korea, commonly known as LiNK, is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-ethnic and non-religious group formed to accomplish the following mission:

To educate the world about North Korea

To advocate for human rights, political and religious freedom, and humanitarian aid for North Korea

To protect North Korean people where they can be reached.

To empower citizens of the world to take effective action and make a difference

To bring together and support existing NGOs and other organizations working to achieve the same ends

To tell the world the truth

It was created first to educate Korean-American students throughout the United States about the sufferings of the North Korean people and the political context in which they are situated. LiNK has since expanded and is no longer limited to Koreans, to the United States, or to college students.

[edit] History

Beginning from 2001, as more and more North Korean refugees made the harsh and dangerous trek to free nations, information about the North Korean human rights and humanitarian crisis began to spread all over the world. Defectors began to testify before major institutions internationally – from the United States Senate to United Nations hearings.

Korean American leaders Adrian Hong and Paul Kim were moved by reports of severe human rights abuses, widespread malnourishment and the tragic plight of refugees in China, and decided they had to spread the word about the crisis. That following spring, at the Eighteenth Annual Korean American Students Conference (KASCON XVIII), held at Yale University, they arranged for the conference to feature several special seminars on North Korea, including a special talk by a North Korean defector, video clips of the escape attempts by North Korean refugees, and panel discussions on various aspects of the North Korea crisis. Nearly 800 Korean American leaders were present, including over 50 distinguished speakers, experts and important figures.

LiNK was officially founded on March 27, 2004, the final day of the conference. The organization immediately spread across a wide collegiate network of Korean American student leaders, marking 40 chapters within one month of launching. As the organization spread, leaders began to raise awareness about the human rights crisis on their local cities and campuses. As LiNK leaders began to get more and more involved in the issue, they began to realize that raising awareness was not enough. Little was being done to address the issue, and existing groups combating the crisis were vastly undermanned and underfunded.

The all-volunteer movement began to delve into activism- first by participating in protests, petition drives and public awareness campaigns. In December of 2004, LiNK sent two teams to the border of China and North Korea on fact-finding missions, to investigate conditions North Korean refugees faced, and interview many refugees in person. While on the trip, LiNK’s investigators found that many North Korean orphans lived on the streets and had no protection from the authorities, as well as traffickers looking to prey upon the children. LiNK team members left China having established the first two shelters in what would grow to become Project: Safe Haven.

LiNK was now firmly a group that would balance raising awareness and investigation of the crisis with actions to make improvements on the ground. It began to take a two-pronged approach of dealing with both the symptoms (the refugee crisis, food crisis) and the problems (the political oppression in the DPRK, poor food distribution) at once.

Over the next year, LiNK began to engage in more extensive field projects, high-level advocacy, while continuing to expand it’s chapters. As of November, 2006, LiNK had over 100 chapters worldwide, throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea.

[edit] Safe Haven

Safe Haven was established by LiNK in November 2004 to shelter North Korean orphans in China. There are about ten thousand orphaned children in China, mostly because their parents either abandoned them in a desperate attempt to increase their chances for survival or were repatriated to North Korea. Because the Chinese government considers all North Korean refugees to be economic migrants, these orphans cannot obtain Chinese Citizenship. They do not have access to Chinese hospitals, schools, or shelter. Orphanages are established throughout China and are maintained by Chinese Koreans, South Koreans, or other North Korean refugees. Communication between these caretakers and LiNK are secretive, such that some caretakers do not even know anything about LiNK. The orphans range from toddlers to teenagers. They are cared for until they become independent. Because these children are constantly at risk of being captured by Chinese authorities, the children are isolated from the rest of the world. A majority of LiNK's fundraising efforts go to Safe Haven. The goal of Safe Haven is to take in as many orphans as possible with the funds it raises and ultimately to smuggle them out to a free country.